The present invention relates to the identification of the nodes of a computer network in an air conditioning installation of a motor vehicle.
The application envisaged by the invention is more particularly the assignment of addresses to peripherals connected to the nodes of the network. However, the invention is equally applicable to the monitoring of the connection of peripherals provided with particular fixed addresses.
Air conditioning installations of motor vehicles comprise a certain number of elements such as actuators for air distribution or mixing flaps, fans, temperature sensors. These elements are connected to a central control unit in order to receive control data and/or to send status data to it.
The increased sophistication of air conditioning installations is reflected in an ever increasing number of component elements. In order to avoid the need for bulky and expensive bundles of conductors, it is known to connect these different elements to a computer network (or bus) which is connected to the central control unit and through which the control data and the status data pass.
It is then necessary to program the addresses of the elements which form peripherals of the computer network of the air conditioning installation.
It is known for hardware-type programming of addresses to be carried out by physical coding effected in the housing of each peripheral or in the connector connecting the peripheral to the computer network. Such hardware addressing has the drawback of being fixed. Furthermore, if it is effected before the connection of the peripherals it poses several problems:                a problem of logistics since it is then necessary to reference the different peripherals in a different manner even through they may be identical, except for their address, such as for example actuators of flaps, fans or sensors,        a problem of monitoring after connection in order to detect any errors of connection due to similarities between peripherals of the same type.        
It is also known for software-type programming of addresses to be carried out after connection of the peripherals to the computer network. This programming is carried out individually, from the central control unit via the network, by accessing each new peripheral installed by its address which, in the usual manner, is initially fixed at the value 0. Such programming is relatively long and leads to the assignment to each peripheral of its own permanent address. Moreover, during repair involving replacement of a peripheral, programming of the address of the new peripheral is necessary.